Privacy Policy
Effective date: 13 July 2026
Auroral (“the app”, “we”, “us”) is an aurora-forecasting app. The short version: Auroral has no account system and no analytics of its own, and we operate no backend server. The free version shows a single banner ad served by Google; a one-time purchase removes it permanently. Beyond ad serving (Google) and purchase validation (Apple + RevenueCat), your data stays on your device, except for the coordinates needed to fetch a forecast.
What we collect
- Location. With your permission, the app reads your device location to compute the aurora viewing forecast for where you are. You can also set a location manually by searching for a city instead of granting location access.
- Your settings. Notification threshold, language, night-vision preference, whether you have purchased Remove Ads, and similar choices.
We do not collect your name, email, contacts, or photos, and we run no analytics or usage telemetry of our own. Advertising-related data is processed by Google only while ads are shown, as described below.
How your location is used
Your coordinates are used only to retrieve the data needed to score tonight’s sky:
- Weather / cloud cover — your coordinates are sent to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Met.no) to fetch the cloud forecast for that point.
- Light pollution — your coordinates are sent to lightpollutionmap.info to look up the darkness (Bortle) value for that point.
- Aurora activity — the app downloads NOAA’s global aurora-oval dataset in full and finds the nearest point on your device. Your location is not sent to NOAA.
These requests are made solely to return a forecast for the location you are checking. Your location is never shared with advertisers, and we do not sell, rent, or share it for advertising, profiling, or tracking.
Advertising (free version)
The free version of Auroral shows one banner ad on the dashboard screen, served by Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK). No other screen shows ads, and ad content is capped at a general-audience maturity rating.
- Consent first. Before any ad loads, the app runs Google’s consent flow: in regions that require it (such as the EEA and UK), a consent form lets you choose between personalized and non-personalized ads. On iOS, the system App Tracking Transparency prompt then asks whether the app may track you.
- Your choice controls personalization, not whether ads appear. If you decline, ads still show but are non-personalized, and Google does not receive your device’s advertising identifier (IDFA).
- What Google processes to serve ads: your IP address (which implies an approximate location), general device information, ad interaction data (such as views and clicks), diagnostic data, and — only if you allowed tracking — the device’s advertising identifier. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.
- Removing ads removes all of this. After the Remove Ads purchase, the app never initializes the ad SDK, shows no ads, shows no consent or tracking prompts, and no ad-related data is processed.
Purchases (Remove Ads)
Remove Ads is a one-time purchase made through Apple’s App Store.
- Payment is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your name, payment details, or Apple ID.
- We use RevenueCat to validate the purchase and remember it across devices and reinstalls. RevenueCat receives a randomly generated anonymous ID and Apple’s purchase information (product, purchase date, receipt) — not your identity. See the RevenueCat Privacy Policy.
- On a new device, Settings → Restore Purchases re-activates the purchase via your Apple ID.
What we store
- Your settings, your most recent location, and your Remove Ads status are stored locally on your device (in the app’s own storage) so the app can work and check conditions in the background. They are not uploaded to any server operated by us — we operate no servers or databases.
- You can clear stored data at any time by deleting the app.
Notifications
Auroral schedules notifications locally on your device to alert you when aurora conditions are favorable. We do not run a server that pushes messages to you.
Background activity
With your permission, the app may periodically check conditions in the background and notify you. This uses your most recently known location; the app does not continuously track your movement.
Third parties
The app contacts these services for the purposes described above. Their handling of data is governed by their own policies:
- Met.no (cloud forecast) — met.no/en/About-us/privacy
- lightpollutionmap.info (sky darkness) — lightpollutionmap.info
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (aurora data; receives no personal data) — weather.gov/privacy
- Google AdMob (ads in the free version) — policies.google.com/privacy
- RevenueCat (purchase validation) — revenuecat.com/privacy
Children
Auroral is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from them. Ad content is capped at a general-audience maturity rating.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above.